Business

We aim to bring the world of commerce to life in our classroom through interactive activities, the teaching of solid theoretical knowledge and by providing opportunities to visit real-life businesses. We place a strong emphasis on each student preforming their best academically whatever their starting point.

Curriculum

Leaning about business involves looking at the internal workings of organisations and how they interact with the world around them. All business courses cover:

Setting up a business – how entrepreneurs generate new ideas, decide on the right business structure and eventually grow their businesses. We look at the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs, franchises, take-overs and mergers.

Marketing – how businesses attract customers to buy their products. This area looks at market research, decisions about pricing, branding, the places the products or services will be sold and the methods of promotion they use. We also look at online technologies such as social media and how they help/hinder business.

Finance – how businesses make sure they have enough income to cover their costs. We look at where businesses can get finance from, how they manage their money and how outsiders to the business can assess whether they are profitable and able to pay their debts.

Human Resources – how businesses manage their employees. We look at the cycle that organisations go through from recruitment, selection, training, appraisal, organisation and motivation.

Operations management – how businesses make sure the right product is made at the right time in the right quantities. This section looks in detail at manufacturing processes such as lean production, just in time techniques and total quality management. It also looks at service industries manage quality.

Economics – We look at both microeconomics and macroeconomics. In microeconomics we study how demand and supply determine prices and how different market structures from monopolies to highly competitive markets have an effect businesses and customers. In macroeconomics we look at how interest rates, taxes, inflation, growth and trade affect businesses.

KS5 (A level)

We study the Eduqas business specification where students are assessed at the end of the two year course via three separate written examinations that last 2 hours each. Although much of the content of the A level course is similar to the GCSE course, the students are required to consider more evaluative factors and demonstrate more sophisticated analysis skills.

Facilities and resources

All students have access to the following to help them excel on this course:

Textbooks and revision guides

Work booklets specifically written for QEGS students that are tailored to the course

Past paper work books and revision activities to aid with independent study

Video tutorials of all sections of the course available on Youtube.com

Trips and visits

In the past we have visited Jaguar-Land Rover, London’s financial district, The Shard, The Bank of England, The London School of Economics, Manchester University and had guest lectures from Financial Advisors and Human Resource specialists.

Extra-Curricular

Each year we take part in the Student Investor Challenge where students invest £100k of virtual money onto the London Stock Exchange. We also have a small pot of money to encourage students to start up their own businesses.